A Hustler’s Leftover Notes – S3E6 Certified

Episode 6 Notes – Certified

Summary

This is presumably Laurie’s goodbye episode and also the beginning of the end,

marked by the 7-year anniversary of the departure. We see her journey from the

day of the Departure until now and she has never been able to get over her guilt

and loss. Laurie, a.k.a. Judas, with the assistance of Matt helps Nora find the two

physicists and their radiation machine because she wants to connect with her

departed children. Laurie then goes to the ranch to find John and help Kevin. She

realizes that everyone is on a path to suicide or death based on their beliefs and can

no longer help them as a therapist and because it’s not her place.

Title

The title relates to the fact that Laurie is both a certified as a psychologist, scuba-

diver teacher and suicidal.

Opening Credits and Theme Song

After the Laurie’s prologue, we hear the powerful Gravediggaz song “1-800

Suicide.” This song works better with the opening credits than every song except

the Iris Dement’s original song.

RECAP

Laurie’s Pain (Prologue)

Approximately two years after the departure, the woman who lost her baby during

the first scene of the entire show is being seen by her therapist, Laurie. After

relaying the heartbreaking tale of how her baby boy departed, the woman asks her

for help. Laurie freezes and says “I don’t know” because this hits too close to

home. We relive Laurie’s tragic experience and flashback to her in the doctor’s

office losing the baby on the day of the sudden departure. Laurie is then in her

office and she tries to commit suicide by taking pills. She writes a note that she at

first tapes to the door and then lies down and holds. After closing her eyes for a

beat, Laurie gets up frantically and finds charcoal in her medical kit to vomit up

the pills. Laurie then gets some white clothes together and puts them on and goes

out to meet the two members of the Guilty Remnant that have been monitoring her.

 Laurie was looking for an escape from her pain at least in part because she

felt guilty and responsible for the baby departing. As we find out later when

she is talking to Kevin, Laurie didn’t want another baby at that point in her

life.

 When faced with having to help other people who have gone through losing

a loved one to the departure (either with this woman or when she and John

give readings), she can’t give them any answers to help ease their suffering.

She can’t deal with her own pain, how can she help others with the same

thing? This is why she tried to kill herself. At the last minute, Laurie decided

that another avenue of escape would be joining the Guilty Remnant.

Laurie and Nora

Laurie, Nora and Matt are conducting surveillance in a van parked outside of the

house of physicists, Drs. Aden and Becker, who are linked to a radiation machine

that can purportedly send people to the same place as their departed loved ones.

They follow the physicists to what appears to be a mobile science lab using 18-

wheelers near the ocean. Seemingly ready to believe this is real, Nora is

determined to follow through. Matt decides to stay with her and Laurie goes on to

the ranch.

 Laurie sees that Drs. Aden and Becker appear to be romantically involved

when staring though their house window.

 We find out the French naval crewman lost his mind and blew up the island

because he believed events in the book of revelations, including a 7-headed

monster was about to hatch like Godzilla. Matt seemingly for the first time

takes something in the Bible as being figurative, not literal. This shows that

Matt has indeed changed as events in the last episode illustrate.

 Nora is obsessed with death and shares with Laurie that the cleanest way to

commit suicide without anyone knowing would be to do it while scuba

diving because no one would be able to ascertain whether it was an accident.

 Nora, really off-kilter, asks Laurie to give her a palm reading. She wants to

find out what Laurie would say to her if she was one of her (and John’s)

clients. Nora pushes Laurie to talk about her kids, but Laurie reiterates that

they don’t do departures because it’s too hard and people get angry.

 Laurie uses Nora and Matt’s parents to share what the process would entail

if they were her clients. Nora and Matt recall the days after their parents died

when they were kids.

o She fondly recalls a childhood trip to a baseball game, where the fans

took more joy out of the beach ball that was batted around the stands

than the game on the field. Even young Matt got into the act, smiling

and smacking the inflated sphere. But then the stadium usher grabbed

the ball and squeezed the air out of it, drawing boos from the crowd

and upsetting Nora. “He just ruined it for all of them,” she says, tears

running down her face. “Why would he want to do that job? Why

would anyone?” Laurie answers that the usher acted because if he

didn’t, the ball would go on the field and potentially cause chaos.

Laurie is the usher!

 Laurie and Nora fight over her zippo lighter that Jill gave to Laurie as a

Christmas present (or is it Kevin?). Because Laurie quit smoking, Nora

wants to keep it. They get into a tussle and Nora accidentally gives Laurie a

shiner on her eye.

 As seen in the previous episode, Matt appears to have found some peace and

changed his priorities in terms of what matters to him. Matt decides to stay

with Nora when they find the facility to be with family. He gives Laurie the

burnt copy of the Book of Kevin and wants her to tell Kevin, Sr. that he’s

sorry he didn’t put him in the fucking book.

The Ranch

Laurie arrives at Grace’s ranch in the bus that presumably Nora and Matt stole.

John and Michael have already arrived. Michael called Laurie while she was with

Nora to let her know that John was picked up by Kevin, Sr. at the airport. Michael

then followed John to the ranch to keep an eye on him. Laurie speaks with Kevin,

Sr. who she affectionately refers to as Pop. Laurie inquires as to what they are

planning on doing with Kevin. She finds out that Kevin is off reflecting on the

issue of whether to kill himself or not to help save humanity. A policeman visits

the ranch looking for the murdered police chief Kevin. Before the policeman gets

too close to the church (where the police chief is buried), Kevin, Sr. knocks him

out. Kevin, Sr. then drives him far away in the outback to drop him off. To allay

Laurie’s concerns, he says he won’t take him too far and will presumably give him

some supplies.

 This is the first time we see Laurie and Kevin, Sr. together but they clearly

had a strong relationship in the past.

 John doesn’t completely trust her motives for being there. He doesn’t know

that Michael is the one that told her of their whereabouts. John still believes

that Evie is alive in some way. She tells John that he should see it through to

the end.

 Laurie appears to not believe in what they are doing (at least at first). Kevin,

Sr., John and Grace tell Laurie what they want to accomplish by killing

Kevin.

o Kevin, Sr. wants Kevin to learn the last part of songline he thinks will

stop the coming floods.

o John wants Kevin to pass on a message to Evie that she was loved.

Laurie can’t understand his pain and realized that she has no place

getting in his way, just like Nora.

o Grace wants Kevin to ask her children where they left their shoes

when they were wandering and died in the desert. She has been

searching for their shoes ever since.

The Last Supper

Laurie, Michael, John, Grace and Kevin, Sr. have dinner and is referred to as the

Last Supper by Kevin, Sr. He also said that the only thing missing was Jesus or

Kevin.

 They have a funny discussion about who each disciple was based on the

Bible and each of the character’s individual stories. Kevin calls himself

Peter. Michael passes on his role (and doesn’t really seem to be a part of all

of this).

 Laurie first calls herself Mary Magdalene, but Kevin, Sr. corrects them and

said she was Thomas. Nora is Mary Magdalene because of being in a

relationship with Kevin. Laurie then says her role is more like Judas by

saying that doubting is easy because doubting costs you nothing. But Judas,

he was surrounded by people going on and on about how special Jesus was.

But he betrayed him anyway. Laurie says that Thomas took the easy way out

by becoming a skeptic while Judas did the harder work of setting the

crucifixion in motion.

 When it was brought to Laurie’s attention that part of Judas’ story involved

him committing suicide, she claimed to not know that part. She “betrayed”

them by drugging everyone’s food so that she could talk to Kevin alone. The

irony here is that Judas and Laurie take the easy way out by committing

suicide.

 Laurie still doesn’t believe that Kevin is now Jesus or some sort of spiritual

guru, but she doesn’t try to talk anyone out of their beliefs which is

somewhat consistent with how she dealt with Nora. Laurie wanted everyone

to find peace, no matter how much she didn’t agree with the why or how.

 Although it appeared initially that Laurie might be a real Judas by drugging

everyone, she just wanted to speak to Kevin alone. Laurie is not Judas

because she didn’t betray anyone, other than not sharing her pain.

Kevin and Laurie

While everyone is sleeping inside, Laurie waits for Kevin. Kevin returns on a

horse. They sit on the porch and have probably the most real conversation they

ever had. Laurie shares with Kevin (or anyone else) for the first time that she was

two months pregnant during the Departure and that she lost the baby while visiting

her obstetrician. She is also honest and tells Kevin that she didn’t want another

baby. Laurie asks him if he would have wanted another kid and he says no.

 They both confess to some other things that they kept hidden from each

other while married probably because they know that this will be the last

time they see each other. Laurie went to an expensive spa when she was

supposed to go to a conference and Kevin accidentally killed Jill’s hamster,

Mr. Funny from neglect.

 Laurie just wanted to make sure that Kevin was on the right path and not

forced into doing something based on others’ beliefs that they project onto

him.

 Kevin tells Laurie he is not scared and that life on the other side is more real

than his current life.

 Laurie gives Kevin the Zippo Jill gave her for Christmas. This foreshadows

her death because she would never part with it because of the sentimental

value it holds. She broke her Guilty Remnant vows by going back to

retrieve the lighter after she tossed it into a sewer.

 When they look at each other and say goodbye, this is one of the saddest,

tear jerking scenes in the entire show. They clearly love each other and if not

for the Departure, they probably would have stayed together.

 It feels like they were robbed of this moment because of the Departure, but

they finally say goodbye to each other.

Laurie’s Departure

Laurie charters a small boat to take her as far out on the ocean as possible. Before

she jumps in, Jill calls her (and Tom is with Jill) and they briefly talk about

mundane things. Jill asks Laurie for her whereabouts and we find out it is the 7-

year anniversary of the departure. Laurie answers that she is spending the day by

herself and neglects to mention that she left with Matt, Michael and John to

Australia. In an eerily bittersweet moment, at the end of the phone call, Laurie tells

Jill and Tom that she loves them. After hanging up, she takes a moment to collect

herself, as if taking the deep breath before the plunge. She then smiles, puts on her

goggle and falls in. The camera focuses on the empty boat for a couple of beats and

the screen cuts to black.

 Is this the end of Laurie or did she just go for a dive?

 Jill mentions that she and Tommy are debating what the name of a show

they used to watch is called, a 1980s Canadian TV series “Today’s

Special.” This was about a department store mannequin who comes to

life at night and learns about life. According to the theme song, which

Laurie was not fond of says that the show was set in a place “With magic

everywhere, a world for us to share, and friendly faces hoping that you’ll

want to meet us there.” This again foreshadows what she is about to

experience and she will go to a world that Kevin said was more real than

here.

 Hearing that Jill and Tom sound happy and are doing well seemingly

makes her choice much easier.

 Laurie is good at hiding her pain from others and no one is remotely

aware of what she is experiencing.

 Everyone was focused on Nora and Kevin and their impending

“suicides,” and didn’t see this coming. Throughout this season and last, it

appeared that Laurie was well on her way to recovery or at least to

finding some measure of peace. Nothing could help her let go of the

guilt she felt. Just like everyone else, she wasn’t okay.

Questions

 Will the flood actually occur on the 7-year anniversary? If so, how does

Kevin, Sr. know? Why does he know and seemingly no one else.

 Will Kevin do something on the other side that will help save humanity

other than learning Christopher Sunday’s song to complete the songline to

prevent the great apocalyptic flood Kevin, Sr. foretells?

 Does Nora use the machine? Will she go to the other side (or wherever the

departures are) and communicate with them. and then we see her at the end

of episode one